MUDEC | MILAN
Some museums – the Guggenheim in New York, Louisiana outside of Copenhagen, Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris – are as well known for their architectural design as for the quality of their exhibitions and archives. Mudec (Museo delle Culture di Milano), a centre dedicated to interdisciplinary research on world cultures, belong to this category. It was designed by David Chipperfield Architects and opened its doors to the public in 2015.
Located slightly outside of Milan’s city centre, it’s within walking distance from most of the main sights (although a taxi is probably the most comfortable mode of transportation). The area had begun its development already in 1999, when the vision was to create an entire new, cultural neighborhood in Milan, filled with museums, archives, and cultural laboratories. Eventually, only Mudec would come to be realized.
The first time you set out to visit the museum, you will probably wonder if you are in the right place, as the museum has no street front. Instead, it is surrounded on all four sides by existing historical buildings, formerly part of the Ansaldo factory. This makes finding the entrance a bit tricky. Once you’ve located it, you will soon find yourself in an internal courtyard, a trademark of Milanese architecture. This is also where the new building has been constructed, in gray titanium zinc and fritted mirrored glass.
Once inside, you will see a central hall, formed as a court within a court. If the outside buildings are strictly geometrical, here the shapes are organic and curved. From this hall, you take the glass stairs up to the exhibition spaces, but before you enter, you will pass through the room that more than anything else has made Mudec famous among design enthusiasts; a light-filled central courtyard, serving as an orientation point to the exhibition galleries that are located around it. Every time you complete an exhibition visit, and before you begin the next one, you will pass through here, as the architects wanted the visitors to relax their minds and reset focus between exhibitions.
The galleries were designed based on Adolf Loos’ principle that height should be proportional to the floor area: The larger a room, the higher is the ceiling. Even though the building is integrated into an existing structure, there is no lack of natural sunlight – a series of roof light systems ensure that daylight can reach inside.
On the ground level, you will find a bistro, a library (with more than 4,000 titles), and a design store. For those wanting a view, there is an additional restaurant located higher at the top of the building, with an outdoor terrace.
